Mazmur 89:2-3

89:2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established; ¹ 

in the skies you set up your faithfulness.” ² 

89:3 The Lord said, ³ 

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;

I have made a promise on oath to David, my servant:

Mazmur 89:25-36

89:25 I will place his hand over the sea,

his right hand over the rivers. ⁴ 

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ⁵  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ⁶ 

89:27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, ⁷ 

the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

89:28 I will always extend my loyal love to him,

and my covenant with him is secure. ⁸ 

89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, ⁹ 

and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. ¹⁰ 

89:30 If his sons reject my law

and disobey my regulations,

89:31 if they break ¹¹  my rules

and do not keep my commandments,

89:32 I will punish their rebellion by beating them with a club, ¹² 

their sin by inflicting them with bruises. ¹³ 

89:33 But I will not remove ¹⁴  my loyal love from him,

nor be unfaithful to my promise. ¹⁵ 

89:34 I will not break ¹⁶  my covenant

or go back on what I promised. ¹⁷ 

89:35 Once and for all I have vowed by my own holiness,

I will never deceive ¹⁸  David.

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ¹⁹ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ²⁰ 

[89:2]  ¹ tn Heb “built.”

[89:2]  ² sn You set up your faithfulness. This may allude to the Lord’s heavenly throne, which symbolizes his just rule and from which the Lord decrees his unconditional promises (see vv. 8, 14).

[89:3]  ³ tn The words “the Lord said” are supplied in the translation for clarification. It is clear that the words of vv. 3-4 are spoken by the Lord, in contrast to vv. 1-2, which are spoken by the psalmist.

[89:25]  ⁴ tn Some identify “the sea” as the Mediterranean and “the rivers” as the Euphrates and its tributaries. However, it is more likely that “the sea” and “the rivers” are symbols for hostile powers that oppose God and the king (see v. 9, as well as Ps 93:3-4).

[89:26]  ⁵ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[89:27]  ⁷ sn The firstborn son typically had special status and received special privileges.

[89:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “forever I will keep for him my loyal love and will make my covenant secure for him.”

[89:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”

[89:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”

[89:31]  ¹¹ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:32]  ¹² tn Heb “I will punish with a club their rebellion.”

[89:32]  sn Despite the harsh image of beating…with a club, the language reflects a father-son relationship (see v. 30; 2 Sam 7:14). According to Proverbs, a שֵׁבֶט (shevet, “club”) was sometimes utilized to administer corporal punishment to rebellious children (see Prov 13:24; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15).

[89:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “with blows their sin.”

[89:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “break”; “make ineffectual.” Some prefer to emend אָפִיר (’afir; the Hiphil of פָּרַר, parar, “to break”) to אָסִיר (’asir; the Hiphil of סוּר, sur, “to turn aside”), a verb that appears in 2 Sam 7:15.

[89:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I will not deal falsely with my faithfulness.”

[89:34]  ¹⁶ tn Or “desecrate.”

[89:34]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and what proceeds out of my lips I will not alter.”

[89:35]  ¹⁸ tn Or “lie to.”

[89:36]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”